OMAFRA’s FREE integrated pest managment training workshops begin this week and run over the next few weeks. A full list of workshops is included below, and include a number that are relevant to specialty crop growers. Scout training kicks off this Thursday, April 26 with the general Introduction to IPM. Other specialty crop workshops include Hazelnuts on May 2, Hops on May 7 and Ginseng on June 14.

For full details on these and other workshops, see below.

If you or your employees are interested in attending, please make sure to register. Some of these workshops may be cancelled if registrations are too low. To register, please contact OMAFRA’s Agricultural Information Contact Centre at 1-877-424-1300.

This workshop covers topics, such as the importance of integrated pest management, disease causal agents, characteristics, symptoms and damage of different insects and mites, scouting for weeds in horticulture crops, pesticide safety, soil diagnostics, invasive species and farm visit biosecurity. It is an introductory course that covers the basic information that scouts need to know. Other scouting workshops will build on this information and will be tailored to the specific crops.